An oil spill is a release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term often refers to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters. Oil spills include releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel) and their by-products, and heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily white substance refuse or waste oil. Spills may take months or even years to clean up.

Oil also enters the marine environment from natural oil seeps.Public attention and regulation has tended to focus most sharply on seagoing oil tankers.

WHAT TO DO BEFORE

• Ttraining, inspection, and contingency plans for the avoidance, control, and shutdown of offshore operations.
• Using new Technologies which prevents oill spill.for example : Drilling blowout preventer - The primary safety control devices for well drilling . Blowout preventers contain a stack of independently-operated cutoff mechanisms, so there is redundancy in case of failure, and the ability to work in all normal circumstances with the drill pipe in or out of the wellbore.

WHAT TO DO AFTER

• Cleanup and recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends upon many factors, including the type of oil spilled, the temperature of the water  and the types of shorelines and beaches involved.
• Bioremediation : Use of  Microorganisms or  Biological agents  to break down or remove oil.
• Controlled burning can effectively reduce the amount of oil in water, if done properly. But it can only be done in low wind  and can cause air pollution.
• Solidifying: Solidifiers are composed of dry hydrophobicpolymers  that both adsorb and absorb. They clean up oil spills by changing the physical state of spilled oil from liquid to a semi-solid or a rubber-like material that floats on water.